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Application Guide
Confused about the app process? Want clarification on things? Here's a step-by-step explanation of everything involved to make things as easy as possible! This page goes through the application itself step by step. Each step will also include examples using accepted characters for clarification. Choosing a character to app can often be the hardest part, and if you're feeling a little lost we'd highly suggest browsing want ads and subplots to get an idea of some of the plots already existing on the board. For the purpose of this guide, though, we will assume you already know which character you're applying for. Name Since you've got to decide on a name before you can even register, this is a really important step. We're a little different than some other Disney personified sites, in that you are essentially taking the animated character, giving them a more modern and realistic life and sticking them on Elias Island. So, that being said, if the animated character you've chosen already has a name that could fit into a modern day setting, even at a stretch, we would highly prefer you keep it. Names like Aquata or Merida or Atta that are a little more unusual, we'd still highly prefer you keep. Names that push the boundaries a little, like Taffyta or Kidakagash, try to stick as closely as possible, like using Tabitha and Kida. Some characters don't have any names, or at least none that would work for a real person! That's where more creativity comes in. Obviously you wouldn't have a character named Magic Carpet, for example. When trying to come up with a name, whether a full name or just a middle name or surname, there's many ways to do this. There are plenty of sites out there where you can search for names by origin, meaning, and gender. Carpet, for example, is similar to a Persian rug and Aladdin is set in a vaguely Middle Eastern world, so maybe look for some names that are Persian or Arabic in origin. If you can't find any that you like, try looking for a meaning that ties into the character instead, like searching for names that would describe the color/personality/characteristics of the character. It might take some work but finding that perfect name will really be worth it in the end. Face Claim Just as big as picking a character and deciding on a name, choosing a face claim is a huge step too. Face claims are the face of your character, so you need a real-life person to represent them, which means no animated characters. They can be actors/actresses, models, or even musicians, so long as they fit the face you're trying to fill. For the face claim you're looking for someone who's as close to the animated character you're applying for as possible. For most cases, the 'feel' of the face is more important than being spot-on looks wise, but there's usually fun combinations of both. It can be difficult sometimes to find the perfect one, but they're out there. If you're having trouble finding someone, try looking for suggestions or at our list of face claim directories. If all else fails, pop into the cbox/Discord and ask some people's opinions. We won't go off into the internet and find a face claim for you while you sit around, but we can definitely try to help. For animal characters, obviously you can't pick that animal as their face claim. You can, however, take story, origins, and looks into consideration. Remy from Ratatouille, for example, is all about someone coming from an atypical background. Since the professional culinary world is dominated by white men, making his face claim a POC instead of a white man added nuance to that story that wouldn't have been there with a white fc. Or Sebastian from The Little Mermaid: his accent is Jamaican, so that gives us a place to start. Jamaica is 92% Black, so a face claim by of any other ethnicity would be stretching it. Our current Sebastian is played by Michael Obiora, and while he doesn't look like a crab, he has Sebastian's large eyes, prominent jaw, and expressive brows. He even has pictures with the same sort of expressions as Sebastian does, making him a really good choice for a face claim. But if their general physical characteristics don't give much to go on, take a look at where the non-human character is from, or what ethnicity they could possibly have. Carpet doesn't have any facial expressions (despite being a very expressive rug), but Aladdin is set in a fictional, vaguely Saudi Arabian-esque world, so looking for a Middle Eastern fc would be the best way to go about it. Please keep in mind that we are extremely strict regarding POC faces. Disney white-washes their casts of characters enough without you doing it too. So please, just be considerate and thoughtful when picking face claim for character who is a POC: we will enforce this for characters who are canonically not white, whether officially (e.g. Tiana) or unofficially/implied (e.g. Naveen, or the characters from The Lion King). On a similar note, try to move beyond thinking of white as default! If a character's race isn't specified, or isn't important to their character, maybe consider expanding your search beyond white actors/models. You might find someone better suited to the character that you never would've imagined! Please note that you do need two graphics (a 200x400 app picture and a 250x350 avatar) of your playby and a 100x100 icon of the animated character you're applying for. If you need help with graphics, please feel free to drop a request here and one of the admins will make and even host them for you! Powers All characters on Elias Island have been given supernatural powers. To find powers, we highly recommend the Superpower Wiki. It's literally got thousands of powers to choose from, with ones that are your everyday superpower package to ones that are much more obscure. If your character is fairly well-known in media, you could even try searching for you character in their search bar. Chances are you'll find a power they already have or get ideas for others. Your character therefore must ''have one or two powers -- no more, no less. Even if they have no powers in their movie, they must on the site. Powers for some characters are easy. Ariel basically already has Siren Song, and Jase also gave her Aquatic Life Manipulation to illustrate her bonds with other sea creatures in the movie. Others aren't quite as obvious, like Her best friend, Flounder. Because he had no obvious powers, a little closer at his character was in order. As a nod to him being a fish, Kai went with Aquatic Respiration as well as Friendship Augmentation to reference his friendship with Ariel. Characters who don't have an obvious power give you some room to get a little bit more creative with the powers you pick. However, it's also really easy to fall into some stereotypes. Not all of the Disney Princesses should have the ability to talk to animals, and neither should they all have enhanced beauty or supernatural singing voices. All of the princesses are individuals and their characters are all unique in their own ways, so don't clump them all together. The same can be said for characters who are animals. Just because they were a dog or a lion in the Disney movie does not mean they should have the ability to turn into an animal. They could have some characteristics of their specific animal, like Enhanced Reflexes for a cat, or Enhanced Smell for a dog. Also an important thing to note for animal powers is that transformation/shapeshifting and physiology powers are different! Someone who has Dog Shapeshifting would be able to literally transform into a dog. Someone with Canine Physiology , on the other hand, has some physical aspects of dogs, like an enhanced bite or sense of smell or even fur. They may not, however, be able to fully transform into a dog. Really though, just be creative! There are literally so many of them out there that you can really do a bit of digging and find one that will really make you character special. Application Body A lot of the body of the application depends on whether you want to do freestyle or traditional. We accept both on Elias. Some people find traditional apps a lot easier because what you need to have in your app is already laid out for you. With a traditional approach, you can easily outline the character's personality traits and give a straight-forward account of what their background and history look like. Freestyle apps, as the name suggests, gives you a lot more freedom in how you'd like to portray your character in the app. You can tell their story however you want, whether it's journal entries, specific memories, letters, etc. We want to see creativity and characters with depth. The only thing we ask with freestyle apps is that you give us the same amount of information as you would find in a traditional app. Which means we still need to get a good feel for what their personality is as well as the major events in their lives. Connections One thing that's pretty unique for Elias's application is the connections tab. This might be something you're not used to as it's not all that prevalent in other genres, but it's arguably one of the most important parts of your app for the admins to judge it. This is your chance to explain all your choices, both for the character as they are on Elias and how they relate to the animated character. Not all of us view Disney characters in the same way, so it's important that you show us your thought process here. There's no set length for how long a connection tab needs to be; a lot of this will depend on what character you are adapting. A major character might need more explanation than a minor one; in particular, we would expect Disney Princesses to have a more in-depth application overall than a minor character. On the other hand, an adaptation of human character set in modern times might not need as much explaining than an animal character set in another world. What we are looking for in the connections is firstly, an explanation of how the details of the animated character have been adapted into your character, and secondly, an explanation of why you've made choices that depart or add onto the animated character. We ''highly recommend taking a look at some of the accepted apps and peeking in their connections tab to give you a better idea of what we're looking for here. Category:Out of Character Category:Application